Most rolled products, such as bath tissue and paper towels, are made with cores, which serve not only as a base upon which the product sheets are wound during manufacturing, but which also enable the rolled product to be operatively positioned for use by the consumer. For example, rolls of bath tissue or paper towels consist of a continuous length of product, divided into individual product “sheets” separated from each other by transverse lines of perforations. The product rolls are typically mounted on a spindle for dispensing. In the case of bath tissue products, the spindle is typically horizontally oriented, while for paper towels the spindle can be either horizontal or vertical. In all cases, the core of the rolled product easily fits over the dispensing spindle and allows the roll of product to freely rotate. Such cores are commonly made of spirally-wound cardboard strips, which are glued together where the strips overlap each other. While cores serve a useful purpose, they add materials costs to the product and are perceived by some as being environmentally wasteful since the core is thrown away by the consumer after the product is used up. When product containing cores is recycled at the factory the core causes specks in the basesheet from the brown fiber of the core and the glue used to make the core and attach the leading edge of the paper to the core.
In response to the disadvantages of conventional cores, coreless rolled bath tissue products have been produced, but not without their own disadvantages. While they eliminate the cost of core materials and the associated glue, some coreless processes add starch or water in excessive quantities to the sheet of product in the windings closest to the center of the roll to stiffen the sheets so they can retain the shape of the hole necessary for the consumer to be able to easily slide the product roll over the spindle prior to use. Unfortunately, this approach adds its own costs (starch/water application) and has the inherent disadvantage of making the stiffened product sheets undesirable or unusable (about 15-20 sheets). Alternatively, some coreless products are wound around a very small diameter mandrel, which results in more useable product than products with a large hole, but also results in a small irregularly-shaped center hole which requires a special adapter to enable the roll to be mountable on a conventional spindle. Other coreless product is provided with no hole whatsoever and a pin is required to adapt to current dispensers.
Therefore there is a need for a coreless tissue product roll which easily fits over conventional dispensing spindles and which does not significantly degrade the properties of the last few sheets on the roll so they are still usable.